William Cornish

Law and Society in England 1750–1950 is an indispensable text for those wishing to study English legal history and to understand the foundations of the modern British state. In this new updated edition the authors explore the complex relationship between legal and social change. They consider the ways in which those in power themselves imagined and initiated reform and the ways in which they were obliged to respond to demands for change from outside the legal and political classes. What emerges is a lively and critical account of the evolution of modern rights and expectations, and an engaging study of the formation of contemporary social, administrative and legal institutions and ideas, and the road that was travelled to create them. The book is divided into eight chapters: Institutions and Ideas; Land; Commerce and Industry; Labour Relations; The Family; Poverty and Education; Accidents; and Crime. This extensively referenced analysis of modern social and legal history will be invaluable to students and teachers of English law, political science, and social history.

Intellectual property rights (IPRs) are increasingly significant elements of economic policy: they are vital to developed countries in an age of global trade. Today's astounding new technologies, stemming from the digital and biotechological revolutions are creating new problems. William Cornish focusses upon the major dilemmas that currently enmesh the subject: the omnipresent spread of IPRs across some recent technologies, the distraction caused by rights that achieve little of their intended purpose, and the seeming irrelevance of IPRs in the face of new technologies such as the internet. What IPRs are good for, and what they should achieve depends upon the law which defines them. There is great international, as well as national pressure for new laws, and in Europe, the EU is now the dominant force in shaping IP policy. Against this background, William Cornish surveys current arguments over legal policy in this field. How can the the issues raised by advances in human genetics be reconciled with the potential for diagnostic and therapeutic advances, and the patenting of molecules, genes, and even organisms by biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies? How can this new field be fairly protected through the existing requirements of patent law; and who should be responsible for effecting this result? Copyright is the traditional buttress of publishing, computer programming, and record and film production. It now faces a life-sapping threat from free and ready access to material via the Internet and other digital resources. How can a mixture of legal rights and technological barriers to access give reasonable protection to investment in new intellectual products without becoming an inordinate instrument of control? Trade marks are the crux of branding: a cornerstone of marketing that often eclipses even the very things being sold. How can we reconcile the tension between those intent on legal protection for every element of investment in branding, and those concerned to balance freedom to compete against the drive for 'fair trading'?

As developments in human genetics proceed apace,the regulation of genetic research and its applications is set to represent one of the major legal challenges of the next century. At every turn - in the fields of medicine and commerce, in insurance and employment, in the family and even in the criminal justice system - advances in human genetics threaten to transform our understanding of ourselves and the basis upon which we relate to one another. This special issue of the Modern Law Review addresses a range of key issues - conceptual, ethical, political and practical - arising from the regulatory challenge confronting the law in the face of the genetic revolution.